This invention relates to swimming pool safety, security and intrusion detection, and more particularly to a video analysis based surveillance system for watching swimming pool area activity.
Some 248 children drown annually in swimming pools, typically as a result of unmonitored children entering the pool area when adults are not present and falling into the pool. 2054 hospital emergency rooms visits related to near-drowning incidents occurred in a recent year, 42% of those requiring hospitalization, with medical costs ranging from $20,000 to $150,000, depending on the severity of the incident.
These pool accidents can happen quickly. 75% of the victims noted above were missing less than 5 minutes.
Typical home security monitoring systems are not suitable for addressing this problem, as they employ remote central station monitoring, which can be slow to respond (or not respond at all). Such remote stations result in notification that is too late given the short response window required to prevent permanent injury to a drowning victim, as brain damage can occur within 3 minutes of drowning.
In an attempt to address the issue of unattended child or unauthorized pool access, alarm systems for swimming pools are available. These systems include water disturbance or displacement detectors which determine when either the surface or subsurface of the water moves or is displaced as a result of a person entering the pool water. Such detector systems have disadvantages, being susceptible to false alarms. Also, since such an alarm does not activate until after the child is in the water, the alarm response is reactive rather than preventive and critical time is lost.
Mechanical safety systems may also be employed, such as fencing the pool area to prevent access to the pool area and/or pool covers to prevent access to the water. These types of solutions do not provide any notification of entry to the pool or pool area, can be expensive to install, require active participation (e.g., locking a gate or installing the cover after each use of the pool), and can be intrusive to the yard (aesthetically unpleasing fencing, for example).